Try decaf
by Dover Bitch

You can always tell an election is nearing. The ads start airing during your shows. The bumper stickers become more visible during your commute. And Joe Scarborough begins his gradual, but inevitable transition from thinly-veiled, independent “journalist” to complete water-carrying GOP hack. It’s really the same script every election cycle and it usually blooms like a flower with an episode like today’s Morning Joe:

The only time he shut up during the entire segment (other than during the beginning of Mika Brzezinski’s newscast, which he interrupted and ended prematurely) was when David Shuster challenged him: to say “John McCain was wrong.”

SHUSTER: One final point: It’s very different to say, “Yes, we ought to take the Iraqis up on their word,” and at the same time say, “You know what, when John McCain ridicules that very point, he is wrong.” And if you want to say, right now — we can end this argument — “When John McCain ridicules the point that we ought to take up the Iraqis and get out of Iraq, and he ridicules that, he is wrong.” You can say that right now and that’s the end of this.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, actually, you’re trying to pick a fight with somebody that wasn’t fighting with you. As a guy…

SHUSTER: Well, you can end the fight by saying “John McCain is wrong.” Go ahead say it. “John McCain is wrong when he ridicules people who call for a timetable.”

[a few seconds of cafeteria din]

SCARBOROUGH: I.. wha… whuuu… miii… Where am I? Am I on Crossfire? I thought they cancelled that show… John McCain is John… OK… John McCain is wrong for blah, blah, blah, whatever you said. We’re not on opposite sides here.

This smackdown followed seven minutes of schoolyard taunts by Scarborough, including, in the most sarcastic tone he could muster, “Ooooh, you’re an independent! Why, I feel soooo comforted by the fact that you’re an independent! I bet everybody at MSNBC has ‘independent’ on their voting cards! Ooooh, we’re down the middle now!”

Truly embarrassing. You can tell the GOP is in trouble this year, because Joe usually waits until somebody mentions Mary Cheney before he percolates completely.

He’s probably still smarting from last night, when Keith Olbermann muttered, “Jesus, Joe, why don’t you get a shovel?” while Scarborough was praising McCain’s Karl Rove 2.0, Steve Schmidt.